United Left Annual Conference 583AER
The United Left Annual Conference 583AER was held in Port Katharina. Around 3,200 party members and supporters attended the event. Alberto Garzón, Leader: "“Thank you, friends, for coming. I want to start by talking about Sevastian Matveev, a victim of a murder conducted by the VLA. Sevastian Matveev was a police officer who kept the streets safe. I think this tells us all we need to know about the VLA and their murderous ways, that they take the life of a decent Falleen who serves this country protecting us from crime. And it’s not just Verz people they’re targeting, but people from all different corners of the Falleen Empire. That’s why we support military, political and diplomatic action to counter the threat of the VLA. The Chancellor of Falleentium and the Duke of Verzoonium are both working towards tackling the situation. We support the action against the VLA. What needs to happen now is that the Parliament needs to play its part in countering the VLA. This party will never turn its back on the people and we will never turn our back on the principles of Socialism. Friends, it is great to be with you here in Port Katharina, a fantastic city. 11 years ago, I founded this party with Cayo Lara and Dolores Ibárruri. 11 years on, I feel wiser, I feel a lot older, in fact I have been leading this party for more than a quarter of my life now *audience laughs*, but I am prouder than ever to be the leader of your party and I thank you for your support. We meet here in serious times, not just for our world but for our Empire to. Our Empire is on the verge of breaking up, an Empire on the verge of breaking up is not an Empire in good health. I want to thank all pro-Falleen United Left activists who try their hardest to keep this Empire together. I want to tell the people of Falleentium directly, we are better together than apart. As politicians, we have a responsibility to explain why there are many people across the Empire who want to split it apart. A few days before the Federal Election last year, I was on my way to a meeting. Outside of the meeting, I met a woman and I asked her how she was voting, I do that to everybody on the street. When I asked, she told me “I haven’t decided yet”. Her name was Albina, she worked as a cleaner in the building. I asked her what the company that she worked for was like. She said “the company is decent, but the wages are rubbish”. She hadn’t decided because life was incredibly tough for her. She didn’t want to vote Conservative, but she thought it would be the best thing to do. I don’t know how Albina voted in the election, but I do know the question she was asking: is anyone going to make life better for me or my family? It isn’t just Albina’s question, it’s the question that people are asking across Falleentium. Is anyone going to build a better life for the working people of our empire? This isn’t just a Federal Election question, it’s also a Leadership Election question. I’m not talking about the powerful and the privileged and those who do well, I’m talking about families like yours. You’re working harder and harder just to stay afloat. For me, this leadership election is about you. You’ve made the sacrifices, you’ve taken home lower wages year after year, you’ve payed higher taxes. You see your energy bills rise and your healthcare services decline. You know this empire doesn’t work. My answer is that we can build a better future for you and your family. This is United Left’s plan to do it, United Left’s plan for you and your future. So what do we need to have that plan? We’ve got to understand what people are saying to us right across the Falleen Empire. I think that across our Empire, there is a silent majority who wanted our empire to endure but telling us that things must change. For example, a young woman called Antonina Mikhailov who works in a pub near to where I live. She lives at the opposite end of the Empire to Albina, separated by at least a generation, but they share a common experience: Antonina couldn’t afford to go to college, so she got a job in the pub kitchen nearby washing dishes. She’s worked incredibly hard and she’s worked her way up to be one of the chefs, but life for Albina is incredibly tough. She thinks politics is incredibly rubbish. Let’s not pretend we don’t hear that a lot. What does she see in politics? She sees drift. She doesn’t think we can solve her problems, but we must prove her wrong. It’s not just people like Antonina and Albina who are struggling with the problems of today but it’s millions of people. I think there’s something that’s even more important about our empire. People have lost faith in the future. The other day I was in the park, trying to work on my speech. There were 2 young women in the park and they seemed excited to see me and then they came over and one of them said “so it is true, you do meet famous people in this park” and the other person said “yeah, it is” and then the 1st person said “no offence, we were hoping for Cumbernick Bandersnatch” *audience laughs*. One of them said something that really stuck to me, she said “our generation is falling into a black hole” and she said about how her parent’s generation had it so good and then there’s nothing left for them. She wasn’t just speaking for herself, but she was speaking for millions of people across our Empire, millions of people who have lost faith in our future. For example, Illarion who is higher up at a technology company. He has a 1-year old daughter, he’s earning a decent wage, but he can’t afford to buy a home for himself and for his family, he’s priced out by the richest. He thinks that, unless you’re one of the privileged few in Falleentium, the empire is not going to work for you and your children are going to have a worse life than you. So many people across our empire feel this way. They feel this empire doesn’t work for them and they’ve lost that faith in the future. Our task is to restore the people’s faith in the future, not by breaking up our empire, but by breaking with the old way of doing thing, by breaking with the past. I’m not talking about a different policy or a different programme, I’m talking about something much bigger. I’m talking about a different idea, a different ethic for the way our country succeeds. For all the fury in Haals, Entloland, Verzoonium, Cartria and all the other states, what people are saying to us is that this empire doesn’t care about them. Our politics doesn’t listen, our economy doesn’t work and they’re not wrong, they’re right and this United Left Coalition is going to put it right. To all members of my party, I will stand for leadership that fights for you and your family. This isn’t just about leadership and government and United Left’s plan for Falleentium’s future, it’s also about all of you. We can’t build an empire we need without you, without mobilising every part of Falleentium. I say to young people, we need your hopes, your energy and your vitality. I say to every older person, we respect your service and we need your wisdom. I say to every business, you can be a part of this and we can’t do it without you. I say to every entrepreneur, we need your ideas and your enthusiasm. I say to every charity, we admire your spirit and we want to hear your voice. I say to every nurse, every teacher and every public worker, we salute your dedication and we know why you do what you do. I say to every person in our empire who believes that tomorrow can be better than today, we need you. Together we bring up our families, together we look out for our neighbours, together we care for our communities, together we build great businesses, the best in the world, together we teach the young, together we heal the sick, together we care for the old and together we invent cures for the most terrible of diseases so of course together we can build our empire, together we can reward hard work, together we can ensure that the next generation does better than the last, together we can make our health services greater than they have ever been before, together we can make Falleentium prouder and stronger in the world, together we can restore faith in the future, on our own we can’t but together we can. In 8 months time, the United Left will face one of the biggest decisions in 11 years. Let me deliver great power to the workers. Thank you very much.” Dolores Ibárruri, Deputy Leader: “Thank you, Conference. It’s great to be here in the great city of Port Katharina and we meet in historic and difficult times, a time of crisis in the north with the VLA causing misery to hundreds of innocent people. We must learn from the past and ensure that the empire’s response to dealing with a crisis includes not only a security response but a political response. Last year, the Falleen people went to the polls and we are all so relieved that millions of people decided to vote United Left because, when it comes to the cause of progressive politics, the struggle for social justice and the fight to kick the Conservatives out, we are better together. We owe a big debt of gratitude to all of you who campaigned and especially to Zail Singh and Nafarroako Batua but there’s one person who played a key role in helping us double our seats, someone who’s had the biggest comeback in decades, the son of our former Deputy Leader, Cayo Lara, Alex. We know that success always has many fathers but let’s not forget the mothers to. I would like to pay tribute to two extraordinary women who played a leading role in the election campaign, Evgenia Filippov and Barbara Nowacka. Conference, if there is one thought I want us to take away, it is this: we can win the next election. I know the task is daunting and we have challenging work ahead, but we can do it because we must. We cannot allow this empire to be ravaged by another 4 years of Conservative rule, a government that poses the biggest threat to our health services, a government protecting millionaires while making it harder for everyone else, a government who’ve seen a record expansion of food banks causing the despair and sense of hopelessness. At the conference meeting, a woman told us that she took a Cantonosian visitor to see the food bank where she works as a volunteer. Her Cantonosian friend was deeply moved by what was going on at the food bank and asked “does your government run this?” and she replied “no, our government caused this.” Food banks are not just a shame on the Conservatives, it’s the Conservative and Imperialist Party who have helped them every step of the way. People have suffered because of that we will make sure that the Conservative and Imperialist Party pays the price in the next election. The Conservatives are swimming in money. They may be able to outspend us, but they will never outorganize us. We can’t match their millionaires and oligarchs, but they will never match our unity and determination. Conference, as you are aware I am resigning next year as your Deputy Leader, but whatever the cost I will always campaign alongside our working class to bring about a United Left government, no matter my walking state. It has been a great honour being the Deputy Leader of your party and I hope my successor will be just as good at the job as I am. Thank you very much.” Basappa Jatti, General Secretary: “Thank you, Conference. I stand here as your General Secretary, proud to be Falleen. To everyone who campaigned in the Federal Election, everyone who voted for the party of unity, thank you. Engaging many people in politics for the first time, the Falleen Empire, not just the collection of desperate parts, but a union stronger together and better together now and into the future. There’s been a lot of talk about the breakup of Falleentium, but what about that other great threat to our unity? I speak, of course, about the Conservative Coalition. They threaten the Falleen Empire, not with geographical breakup, but with a fracturing society where the rich are insulated behind their gated communities and the poorest are hammered with cuts to their services. This coalition governs without a mandate, without compassion and without a moral compass. They cling to power, even if the sands of their time in office run out and they leave Falleentium worse than before and, talking of the Conservatives, what about the UFID? There’s that “great man of the people” Nicolai Vestergaard. He is so anti-politics that he’s been in politics all his life, so anti-politician that he stood for election. As we look at this coalition government, no government has been more deserving of defeat but wanting it and willing it and waiting for it is not enough, it won’t happen by accident, United Left only wins when we organise and when we fight, that’s why we selected our candidates early before the recent election, a wonderful brigade of men and women from every background and from every part of the empire. The next generation of a one-nation United Left, backed by organisers on the ground, backed by the real People’s Army, United Left’s members and supporters, thousands across those battleground areas, that’s what I promised 4 years ago, that’s what we’ve delivered. The job now is reaching out on every doorstep, conducting the conversations and listening to the concerns, building the party’s strengths, energising our supporters, getting out the leaflets and, when the day comes, getting the vote. Let us summon the spirit of United Left victory, the spirit to defy political gravity once again, the spirit to win a majority after one term in opposition, the spirit to put aid and the United Left team into government, the spirit to make this empire so close to disunity and breakup truly one nation. Thank you.” Barbara Nowacka, Spokesperson for Political Affairs: "Thank you, Conference. It gives my great pleasure to welcome you all to this crucial United Left conference and as we gather here in Port Katharina the whole of the Frontbench team is gearing up to fight in the leadership and deputy leadership election. This is the first annual conference our party has had since the recent Federal Election, so conference, let’s take this opportunity to show our appreciation to everyone who campaigned for social unity. Along with many of you in this hall, I’ve been across the empire campaigning and I met people working hard but struggling to get by as prices saw while wages stagnate. I met young people who were despairing ever finding a job and pensioners worrying about the future of our nation and I have met many who have just lost their faith in politics and it struck me how much they had in common with the people in my own area in Zarantin. They’re worried about exactly the same things, they face the same challenges and they express the same frustrations. They to voted United Left and got a Conservative government. They too worry about what the future holds and thinks that politics as usual is just not good enough anymore and, as the leader of the only truly national party, Alberto Garzón knows too, whether it’s in Verzoonium or in the rest of the Falleen Empire, this party understands that fundamental change is needed and, now that the siren voices of nationalism have been defeated, real and meaningful change is on the way. Conference, now is the time for our empire to come together, not to defend the status quo in the way our politics is done or in the way our economy is run, but to build a better Falleentium where everybody has a stake and a say, so now we’ve kept this empire together we need to change this empire together. Thank you very much.” Nafarroako Batua, Chief Whip: “Thank you, Nowacka. Conference, we gather here in Port Katharina only a year after a defining decision for our empire. The election campaign was about more than party politics, it was about who we are, what we believe and what we hope for together as a nation. When we sent out the call to our friends and comrades in the United Left Coalition, you, the members, answered that call. By campaigning together, you demonstrated solidarity in action so, today, from this stage, let me urge this conference to thank every United Left Coalition member from every part of Falleentium who, in the weeks leading up to the election, played their part in doubling our seats in parliament. Thank you.” Zail Singh, Spokesperson for International Development: ''' “Thank you, Batua, and thank you Conference for a very warm welcome. I’m going to make a short speech this morning. It’s great to be here, not just presenting the views of a party but also to share a common nationality and our empire as well. In development, our choice in the election was clear: between a Conservative party that is losing its mind over Neurope and is shifting to the right, a choice between that party or a politics of Alberto and the government that he will lead. Thank you very much.” '''Pedro Garzón, Spokesperson for Health: “Thank you, Conference. Conference, I want to start with a question for you all. How many of you would walk 300 miles to have a single-payer healthcare system *everyone raises their hand*. Our party sets out its plan to secure it in this parliamentary term, a rescue plan for a shattered service but it’s more than that: a vision for a modern single-payer there when you need it, personal to you and your family. We want a single-payer healthcare system based on people, not profits. Today we place that proud United Left plan at the centre of our plans. A plan worth voting for, proof that not all parties are the same, giving you a real choice over the future of your healthcare because it certainly didn’t happen last time. The current government has dragged our healthcare down and left it on the brink, over 15 million people on hospital waiting lists, families waiting longer for cancer treatment to start. Our medical care can’t take 4 more years after this of Brokenshire, I could go on about the damage, but let’s be honest. Would that help people worry about where our health services are going? I know there will be families and carers out there watching us today, wondering whether anyone really understands what their life is like, soldiering on from one day to the next, feeling invisible and taken for granted, ringing the surgery early in the morning but unable to get through, telling the same story to everyone who comes to the door, you feel no one listens and no wonder, so that’s why I’m going to do something different today, I want to speak to you directly and, to the parents of children with disabilities, for whom life feels like one long battle and worries endlessly about what will happen to your son or daughter if you weren’t around to fight for them. To the millions of you who face the daily worry and stress of arranging your mum or dad’s care while trying to hold down a job and most of all to those of you might be at home alone, fearing what the future might hold, my message is simple. United Left is with you. Your worries are ours. We know things can be better than they are. We want a healthcare system that takes your worries away and we can do it if we are prepared to do something bold. The time is coming for this party to bring social care to the forefront of government policy. That allows us to rebuild our healthcare services around you and your family, no longer ringing the state parliaments for this and that but one service, one team, one person to call, a healthcare service for every person, a healthcare service for carers, a single-payer personal to you, a healthcare service keeping you well, not a sickness service picking up the pieces and an end once and for all to the scandal that is the care of older and vulnerable people in Falleentium in 583. I ask you this: how much longer will we say that people who are so frail that they need help with getting up, washing, eating and who suffer from loneliness and isolation are only worth a slapdash 15-minute visit? How much longer will we send out the message as a society to young people who look after someone else’s mother, father, brother or sister that it is the lowest form of work, lower than the minimum wage because it doesn’t include the travel time between your 15-minute visits. We support the right to an annual health check, help with hospital car parking charges and why do we do that? Because they matter as much to me too. We will give all families the right to care in their home if that is what they want. These are the things that matter to people so much and this is about a single-payer there for you at the most important moments in your family’s life. This is what people want and this is what becomes possible with United Left’s plan, simply not possible in Brokenshire’s fragmented, privatised, demoralised service. Thank you.” Pablo Iglesias, Spokesperson for Communities and State Government: “Thank you very much, Conference. I want to begin by saying thank you, first of all to our great United Left MPs and leaders for the work they do to stand up for United Left values in hard times and to all our team in the Chamber of Deputies. Last year, the Falleen people made their decisions. That moment was the time where the ground beneath our feet shifted beneath our feet, a moment that was full of opportunity, a moment to lift up our eyes. We get the message about the distance and the alienation that too many people feel from politics and we have a plan to radically transform our universal system so that people can see that change is coming. It’s no wonder there’s discontent. We see Conservative secretaries telling everybody that the economy is doing fine, there’s nothing to see here, they say, everything’s okay just move along. It shows how out of touch they are. People are working hard, putting in the hours, doing the best for their family but finding it tough. Pay is going up enough to meet the bills, nearly 7.5 million people are on zero-hour contracts not knowing from one week to the next how much they will earn. Despite the critics, it is everyone’s responsibility to stand up for our democracy, to cherish our democracy, to have faith in our democracy because we know it’s how we built a better society before and how we will do so again tomorrow. That is how the Falleen people made their decision last year, that is how the Falleen people will make theirs in 3 years’ time. We know how much this matters, we know how hard the fight will be but Conference, we also know that the greatest victories are won in the toughest circumstances. Thank you.” Category:The Imperial Constitution